Hello everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews…again. My name is Melina, and I am a bibliophile, a lover of books, a bibliophage, an ardent reader and a bibliotaph. I hoard books. I am all things biblio. In this blog, I review books of different genres including literary fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, fantasy, YA, and others. Please feel free to turn the page and look around. Hopefully, one of my reviews will help you decide to pick up a book or not. If you’re interested in a review for your published book, please click here to get on my wish list. Happy…
JUNE 2026: Best and Worst Books of the Month
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be ranking the books I read in June. This month I DNF’d 1 book. Here’s my list: 9. Aeneid by Virgil (DNF) Yeah, I really tried with this one. And I made it to the 45-50% mark, but I just couldn’t read the rest. I was bored out of my mind. And it’s not that I don’t like this book. I’ve read it before (in college). It’s just that I wasn’t in the right moment in my life to read it again. 8. Myths of Geography: Eight Ways We Get…
JUNE WRAP UP: What I Read This Month
Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in June. This month I read 8 books. Here are my thoughts about them: 1. NONFICTION AND BIOGRAPHY: Porfirio Díaz, su vida y su tiempo: La guerra 1830-1867 (Porfirio Díaz, His Life and Times: The War 1830-1867) por Carlos Tello Díaz This book is the first volume of a comprehensive and detailed biography―written in three parts―of Porfirio Díaz, a controversial figure in the history of Mexico who lived and fought in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, the Mexican Civil War between the liberals (led by…
Firsts of 2026 Book Tag
Hi everyone. Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. It’s time to do my Firsts of 2026 Book Tag. This will be interesting… First Book I Read In 2026 Las batallas en el desierto (Battles in the Desert) by José Emilio Pacheco It is a book about the loss of innocence. But this loss of innocence occurs at three different levels: On the personal level, a young boy, Carlitos, falls in love with Mariana, his best friend’s mother. Now, as an adult, Carlitos is telling us the story of his first love, how he experienced it, and how he processed his feelings…
MAY 2026: Best and Worst Books of the Month
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be ranking the books I read in May. This month has been my slowest reading month of the year so far, but I did DNF some books. Here’s my list: 6. Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto (DNF) How do you deal with loneliness when you’re stuck in a place you don’t want to be at? I wanted to like this book, but I couldn’t. The protagonist, Don Diego de Zama, is a Spanish colonial officer stuck in a stagnant post in Paraguay. He is waiting for a missive from the…
MAY WRAP UP: What I Read This Month
Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in May. This month was definitely a slower reading month for me; I only read 4 books. Here are my thoughts about them: 1. NONFICTION AND MEDIEVAL HISTORY: 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West by Roger Crowley This book is an account of the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Setting the stage by introducing the main actors―the Emperor Constantine XI and the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmet II―this book is a good introduction to the history…
APRIL 2026: Best and Worst Books of the Month
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be ranking the books I read in April from worst to best book of the month. As before, the list will enumerate the books I didn’t finish first. Also, this month was a little all over the place as I tried to catch up with books that I didn’t get to read in March but was still interested in, most of them nonfiction. So, there’s a lot more of those this month. However, I did read some fiction books too and I include those in a second list of worst…
APRIL WRAP UP: What I Read This Month
Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in April. This month I caught up with my history readathon and nonfiction book club. So, quite clearly, there are more nonfiction than fiction books in this month’s wrap-up: 1. NONFICTION AND BIOGRAPHY: The Last Emperor of Mexico: The Dramatic Story of the Habsburg Archduke Who Created a Kingdom in the New World by Edward Shawcross This book is a biography of Maximilian I, the Emperor of Mexico, and it provides a “fascinating look into the peculiarities of 19th century international politics” (Historycamp, The Last…
MARCH 2026: Best and Worst Books of the Month
Hi everyone. Today, I’ll be talking about the best and worst books I read in March. This month, however, I’m doing things a little different. Given that I don’t have a specific book that I disliked this month, I am ranking the books I did like from worst to best. Disclaimer: I will not include the memoir I read in this list. I will, however, add the 3 books I DNF’d this month. The first is the one I didn’t like the most: 10. Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys by Mariana Enriquez (DNF) I wanted to…
MARCH WRAP UP: What I Read This Month
Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in March. I apologize for such a late post, but here it is. I read 8 books last month. Here are my thoughts on all of them: 1. HISTORICAL FICTION AND WWI: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque This novel, written by Erich Maria Remarque and first published in 1928, “follows young German soldiers during World War I, focusing on the brutal reality of trench warfare and the profound disillusionment and trauma these young soldiers experience, stripping away patriotic ideals to…
FANTASY READS 2026: Book of the Month
This month the prompt is to read a book from an author that is not from your country. The book I chose is “The Iron King” by Maurice Druon.